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Sunday, June 29, 2014

Don't poke the sea anemone...

When I was in third to fifth grade, my family was living on a U.S. Air Force base in Okinawa, Japan. On a rare occasion, my dad took the family to  some tide pools. I don't remember exactly why this discussion came up, but at one point, my dad showed us some sea anemone. He explained to us that they are very sensitive creatures, and if you poke one with a stick, they would pull their tentacles up and withdraw into a shell. He grabbed a small stick and showed us by gently touching the sea anemone's tentacles. Just as my dad said, it quickly drew in its tentacles. Afterwards we watched as the sea anemone slowly extended its tentacles once again. We each took turns gently touching the anemone.


My dad was careful to remind us not to poke the sea anemone too hard because we could hurt it.

I think in a way, we are all like the sea anemone. We put ourselves out there, we make ourselves vulnerable. Unfortunately, from time to time, someone, or something comes along and pokes us. As a defense mechanism, we pull ourselves inwards and retreat into our little shells. We do this to protect ourselves. When people poke at us, we withdraw. We might avoid contact with them (as much as possible), we avoid talking to them, we don't let them touch us, be near us, etc. We sometimes will argue more with them, resist doing things for them, dislike things they like, etc. Slowly we open back up and allow our tentacles to flow freely in the water. We let ourselves be vulnerable again. Later on, we get poked again. We repeat this cycle often. It's part of life, I suppose. The problem, however, is that there are those who walk along the tide pools of life who just love jabbing at sea anemones. They do it repeatedly, over and over again. They sit and wait for the sea anemone to come back out so they can poke it again. As my dad told us, we have to be careful, because if we poke too hard, or too many times, we can seriously hurt or kill the sea anemone.

The thing is, we sometimes just get sick and tired of being poked and we give up. We just stop trying. We decide we've had enough so we permanently retreat. I feel like I reached that point last Friday with my work. I don't know if this means that I'm going to find another position, or am I just going to stop caring and basically be one of the many people I see who just don't give a crap. I'm just tired of being poked. I'm tired of putting myself out there, and I'm tired of any time I want to do something new or innovative having to turn it into an argument. Apparently people just want me to learn my place and just shut the hell up. This sea anemone is done being poked. (And no, this is not me saying I'm going to harm myself...I'm just gonna spend my hours at work on Facebook or Twitter like so many others in the office seem to do.) Then when school is back in session I'm going to find ways to spend more time visiting classrooms so I'm hardly ever in the office. Thank heaven I leave for my two-week trip to China soon!



13 comments:

Duck said...

Are you an administrator? Do you continue teaching, also?

Best of luck on your trip to China. I hope it will reinvigorate you with your work situation. It ticks me off that people are poking at you.

James said...

Yeah, I'm one of those awful, evil admins. :)

Actually, I try to keep myself grounded so that I remember what it means to be a teacher. I think I do a good job at that, and I hope, to always keep student needs first. Unfortunately, it seems that too many focus more on how their egos are stroked instead of what's good for students and teachers. :(

Duck said...

I couldn't agree with you more. I absolutely love administrators who support teachers and students and those who are not "yes" men to everyone. That pretty much drives me crazy.

How long did you teach? Will you ever go back to it? How long have you been an administrator for?

I teach Jr. High math and have done it for a lot of years. I'm lucky, have not had one day where I wished I had chosen a different career. Love my job!!!

Happy night and happy trip to China. Ni hou. (Sp?)

Duck said...

I couldn't agree with you more. I absolutely love administrators who support teachers and students and those who are not "yes" men to everyone. That pretty much drives me crazy.

How long did you teach? Will you ever go back to it? How long have you been an administrator for?

I teach Jr. High math and have done it for a lot of years. I'm lucky, have not had one day where I wished I had chosen a different career. Love my job!!!

Happy night and happy trip to China. Ni hou. (Sp?)

Trev said...

You're coming to China? I live in China! Whereabouts will you be? I live in Shenyang, not _terribly_ far from Beijing.

Duck said...

There must be something about administrators going to China, mine go about every three years. They love the experience but always come back saying they have trouble acclimating to the food.

James said...

@Duck: I taught for 12 years before moving into administration. To be honest, I don't miss it that much. I know it sounds terrible, but teaching in a very large (318,000+ students) urban school district is very trying. I've thought about going back to teach, but at this point, I couldn't afford it. I know that sounds awful, but it's the truth. We just don't pay our teachers enough.

@Trev: Yes, I'll be in Xiamen for about two weeks for training. I have a grant from the Chinese government to expand Chinese learning in my district, so they're paying for everything. Pretty nice, huh? I've been in Fujian province before (Fuzhou) but never Xiamen. I'm also going to spend some days in HKG on my way home. I'm excited. I've spent time in Beijing, Fuzhou, Shanghai, and Chongqing. Unfortunately, my Chinese is limited to "ni hao" and "xie xie." As a language educator, that's embarrassingly poor. lol

James said...

Oh yeah, the Chinese government has a MASSIVE program to expand the number of people learning Chinese throughout the world. They are very generous with their money. At least once a year they have what's called the Chinese Bridge Program where hundreds of U.S. administrators come to China for a week to learn about the various programs that the government has. I can only assume they do the same thing with other countries. They basically pay for everything. This November we'll be sending about six people to represent my district (me too). It's amazing the money they have. For me the food isn't bad, my mom is from Hawai'i, and we lived for six years in Japan, so I'm used to Asian food. I'm quite the expert with chop sticks, and since I'm left-handed everyone is always surprised. Apparently that means I'm really lucky or something.

The only thing I can't eat is seafood...blah. Yeah, that's in a lot of Chinese food, but I survive. I will admit that it does gross me out when they bring a plate of fish and it's the entire fish...face and everything right there on the plate. LOL

Duck said...

I envy anyone who can learn Chinese. Not far from where I live is a school that does Chinese immersion for grades 1-6. They are taught by Chinese instructors. It's amazing how good their Chinese is after those years. They'll be the future Chinese business people.

And, your post about poking the sea animal was very profound. It had a great impact on me. That was a great teaching story, thank you!!

In Utah, if someone is an administrator for three or more years, if they decide to go back to teaching, they get the same administrator salary. Wish it were the same for you. :)

Duck said...

PS I am the same with eating sea food food, can't and won't do it.

Trev said...

Wow, what a great opportunity! Enjoy it. I don't envy you, though, in that it will be blazing hot down there.

Aww... Chinese fish is the best (I just ate a whole roast fish for dinner by myself last night--had to use a coupon that was expiring, ha ha). I've encountered lots of people who never eat fish in the west because they don't like the "fish" taste, but they like it in China because the cooking methods they use here are totally different (and generally remove that flavor). The bones can be super annoying (and--if you're not careful--dangerous), though.

Trev said...

Wow, what a great opportunity! Enjoy it. I don't envy you, though, in that it will be blazing hot down there.

Aww... Chinese fish is the best (I just ate a whole roast fish for dinner by myself last night--had to use a coupon that was expiring, ha ha). I've encountered lots of people who never eat fish in the west because they don't like the "fish" taste, but they like it in China because the cooking methods they use here are totally different (and generally remove that flavor). The bones can be super annoying (and--if you're not careful--dangerous), though.

Anonymous said...

I don't think I could ever figure out how to use the loo over there.